


Tony Stark's Guide Book On Dating Captain America

by shoot_to_thrill



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Get Together, M/M, Multiple chapters, One Shot Collection, Snapshots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2016-07-03
Packaged: 2018-06-09 16:21:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 3,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6914485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shoot_to_thrill/pseuds/shoot_to_thrill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When dating a national icon it helps if you document your experiences for future reference. It's less helpful when you're Tony Stark.</p><p>OR </p><p>A series of short one-offs that follow Tony and Steve's relationship in the form of Tony's observations about Steve</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. #4: Steve Rogers is a huge dork

**Author's Note:**

> Also posted on my [tumblr](http://shoot-to-thrill18.tumblr.com)
> 
> Not Beta'd all mistakes are my own but if you spot em, inbox my tumblr and I'll try to fix them
> 
> Please note: For the person who asked, the numbers are virtually meaningless and are simply there to track the number of 'entries' and by proxy their relationship. The numbers indicate chronological order but not much else.

Maybe it was growing up hearing his dad’s stories of Captain America. The way the blond would run into zones of enemy fire fearlessly. The way he carried himself in battle and stood up for what is right.

Maybe it was actually seeing the Captain in the flesh. The way he held himself with such an air of confidence and righteousness. There was something in the way he was able to confidently bark out orders- as annoying as it was- and just know that people would listen and it would work. He not only had confidence in himself but in the team as well and it was almost enviable.

But the thing is, Steve Rogers is not Captain America. Well he was, but Captain America wasn't Steve Rogers. Now this could sound pedantic but it was true. They were different people. While the Captain was suave and self-assured, Steve was actually a huge dork.

No one could say that the guy who thought fondue was code for sex was exactly a cool guy. Steve, who laughed the loudest whenever Clint made some stupid pun or Natasha had a witty remark to something dumb someone had said. Steve, who without self-consciousness could stride around half naked but would blush deep red and get all embarrassed if someone (usually Tony) made too many innuendoes. Steve, who could spend all day sitting somewhere with a decent view just doodling away. Steve, who whenever he learned a new slang word would try to drop it casually in conversation and left the team in hysterics. Steve, who every once in a while would get really sentimentally about something, like telling Tony he liked him and start acting like a teenager.

“IthinkIhavekindofalittlebitofacrushonyou.” He mumbled all at once and way too quietly.   
Thankfully, Tony was the king of talking fast and didn't miss a single word. The genius couldn’t help the smirk on his face as the adonis of a man in front of him ducked his head like he was nervous Tony would reject him. In that moment, Tony had a feeling that Steve was back to being a scrawny sixteen-year-old again. Tony chuckled and shook his head.   
“God you’re adorable Capsicle.” He hummed. “Cant believe I had a crush on you in high school. Damn near 100 and still using the word crush.” He shook his head again and before Steve could say anything else he leaned onto his toes and kissed Steve’s cheek. “I’ll make reservations for dinner. “

In the reflection of the elevator doors, Tony could see Steve doing a little happy dance behind him and laughed to himself. Steve Rogers was a complete and total dork and Tony loved every second of it.


	2. #6: Steve loves flowers

Steve is a huge sap. A huge sentimental sap. On their first date, Steve stepped out the elevator with a ridiculous bouquet of bright yellow flowers.

Tony had never once looked at someone and felt underdressed or less than. He was pretty much an expert at this point, in being the best-dressed person in the room. He hadn't been prepared to turn the corner from his bedroom and see Steve standing outside of the elevator in a light gray suit that would short-circuit his brain.

“Hey.” The super soldier said practically beaming.   
Tony found himself practically sputtering as his brain tried to reboot itself. Thankfully, Steve didn't seem to mind just held up the flowers. “I’m just gonna put these in some water for you.”

Tony had half a mind to question how Steve knew where Tony kept the large vase that he returned with and set on Tony’s coffee table but then again, Tony hadn't even known that he owned a vase in the first place.

Tony just shrugged it off a placed a tick in the old-timer values column he had going in his head and didn't think much about the yellow flowers after that. Exactly two days later Steve had a sent a small bouquet of wildflowers to Tony at the office when he had back to back meetings. He was just popping into his office, which at this point mostly served as a hideout and a place for Pepper to store all of the paperwork she needed Tony to go through even though they both knew he wasn't going to do it any time soon, when he noticed the little the flowers. A short stumpy glass square sat on the middle of his desk with a bunch of brightly colored flowers of various shapes and sizes poking out. Tucked into the leaves was a small card which when Tony pulled out he instantly recognized as being in Steve’s neat handwriting and simply read

_just because_

  
with a small simple smiley face drawn. *

  
  
*note: see #4: Steve Rogers is a huge dork 


	3. #21: Kissing Steve will shut him up

Tony prided himself on being a pretty smart guy. He was a certified genius. It didn't take him long to realize that arguing with Steve was a lost cause. They fought like proverbial cats and dogs. They were both strong-willed and hard-headed and it didn't mesh well seeing as they rarely looked at something and had the same response. It wasn't like they weren't friends, though. It was just a friendship full of petty arguments and entirely unnecessary debates.

But when they started going out,Tony couldn't help but want to use every opportunity possible to kiss Steve's perfect face. And Steve was actually pretty damn adorable when he was annoyed. The first time Tony had kissed him mid-argument had Steve stopping dead.

"No Tony, there's no excuse for it! You can't just do whatever you goddamn want because you're Tony Stark and you think you're better than everyone else."

Tony should have been offended, but he couldn't help himself from leaning forward and covering Steve's mouth with his own. It was almost like flicking a light switch. Steve quickly relaxed into the kiss and when Tony pulled away, Steve was a little red and quiet.

By the third time Tony was beginning to see the pattern. No matter what the situation, kissing Steve quiet seemed to be pretty damn effective at getting him to stop talking. 


	4. #36: Always bring snacks

Steve's body worked faster than most. It was the reason he healed as quickly as he did, the reason he never seemed to gain a single pound no matter how much cake he ate, the reason he couldn't get drunk. It also meant he processed food faster than normal people and someone as active as Steve had to keep the calorie intake up to begin with. Tony learned very quickly that this meant having snacks on hand at all times was a good thing.

"I'm so hungry I think I'm dying," Steve complained, for what felt like the fortieth time that morning. If anyone should be complaining it was Tony. Steve had dragged him out of bed at an ungodly 5:45am sharp and forced him to go hiking with him. After the horror-movie like experience, Tony made it a point to hide snacks all over the tower and in his cars and to, whenever he could, shove a granola bar or something in his pocket before leaving and going anywhere with Steve.

It took 5 weeks of dating before Steve caught on to what he was doing. They were holding a press conference to announce new official members of the active-duty Avengers team and that Tony was patenting out a new tip line for the mass public. They were taking a break mid-conference before they began taking questions from the audience and Steve was noticeably getting a little fidgety. Tony leaned over and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "It's gonna be fine, Steve. It's gonna be like it always is, they'll question our judgment about who we're trusting and then they'll accept it because they have no other choice and we are right like always. " He assured him, placing a hand over his under the table. He pulled a fruit bar from his pocket and set it on the table. "Here, eat something."

Steve eyed the bar on the table in front of him. "So," He asked picking up the snack and tearing the packaging off. "How long have you been carrying around snacks for me?"

Tony turned a deeply embarrassing shade of red and was already trying to rack up a million excuses to blurt out at once when Steve just smiled and pressed a kiss to the billionaires cheek. "It's sweet, thank you, Tony." 


	5. #52: Steve is very low maintenance

Tony's history with relationships was rocky, to say the least. Pepper was great, she really was. But their relationship couldn't exactly have been considered normal with Pepper acting simultaneously as his employee, boss, friend, and girlfriend. So what Tony was left with was a couple of short-lived college flings to base his idea of normal relationships on. Plus, movies always made it look like it required these big declarations of love, and constant compromise and attention-giving. So it truly came as a shock and took him a while to realize that that was not what a relationship with Steve was like. Steve required neither constant attention nor huge shows of affection. In fact, he kind of detested both.

"Okay. Enough."

Tony looked up from his lab bench and pulled goggles off his head to look at the man marching towards him. He wracked his brain to think of what on earth he could have done to cause Steve to have such a scowl on his perfect face. "I'm sorry?" He asked.

Steve shook his head at the genius. "You're driving me crazy." He replied as if it answered Tony's question. "It's really sweet that you keep buying me presents, and texting me just to say you're thinking of me or what have you, and taking me out to all these fancy restaurants and extravagant dated. But I don't need 12 teddy bears, or a new tablet, or a watch, or any of that. " He paused to take a breath but the second Tony opened his mouth, kept going. "I'm not dating you because you have money or to get fancy dinner or carriage rides. I mean I **love** just hanging out with you. Watching movies, when I'd sit down here and draw while you worked, that was great. What happened to that?"

Tony hesitated, making sure Steve was actually done this time and giving himself time to process what he'd said. "I just thought... I wanted to make sure you knew. I didn't want you to feel unappreciated or whatever."

Steve sighed and pressed a kiss to his forehead. "Tones, I don't need any of that stuff to know you care."  
  


* * *

 

Once Tony actually started paying attention, he realized very quickly that Steve was right. He was very low maintenance. Steve was A-OK with just going for a quick walk, hand in hand, to grab ice cream; or just sitting quietly together on the couch watching Netflix with Tony's head on Steve's shoulder, or even eating pizza on the floor of Tony's workshop while wearing sweat pants. In fact, he seemed happier than ever. And Tony was more than happy to report that he felt the same way.


	6. #73: Steve secretly loves romantic comedies

Tony knew Steve loved watching movies. He had carried around that stupid notebook listing all of the movies and things he wanted to catch up on for _months_. Tony was happy to help him with his mission to catch up on the biggest movies he'd missed. They spent countless nights together curled up on the couch watching movies.

It didn't take Tony very long to realize that as much as he tried to hide it, Steve loved the romantic comedies the best. He tried to hide his tears during the Notebook, he tried to keep the sappy smile off his face every time the guy got the girl in the end of the movie.

Tony certainly didn't mind. Every cheesy plotline, every cliché, it was all worth it for that look on Steve's face when the couple realized they were in love all along. He was such a sap. Tony could watch him smile like that forever.

The realization hit Tony like a bus. He blinked at the screen a couple of times before turning back to Steve, a small smile playing on his lips as he watched the super soldier swell while watching the part of the movie where the guy runs through the rain to let you know he loves her with an obvious sentimentality. So when Steve turned to him and leaned back to make a confused face at him while asking "What?" Tony didn't hesitate.

"I love you."

Steve grinned wide. The blond tucked his head and kissed Tony gently. "I love you too." He whispered against the billionaire's lips. 


	7. #94: Steve will beat you at everything, and I mean EVERYTHING*

*And if he doesn't by some miracle, he is the sorest loser.

Everything was a competition with Steve. They couldn't even watch an episode of Jeopardy or without it becoming a contest to get more answers right and beat each other to it to boot. Actual game nights, those became like a damn near war. And the most infuriating part of it all was that Steve always won.

It was a Friday night and they were all gathered around the dining room table that was used for game nights far more than it was actually used for dining. The Monopoly board was set up in the middle of the table and things were starting to get heated. Tony grinned wide and held his hand out expectantly. Steve's thimble sat on Tony's Pennsylvania Avenue square which was currently housing not one but three of those damn little houses.

"Come on, Captain. Let's go. One grand make it happen. Batting those baby blues isn't going to change it." Tony sang with a wide grin.   
Steve made a face and flipped over one of his cards to mortgage it.

"Fine. Bruce, I'm gonna mortgage this so I can pay Tony his damn rent." He complained as Bruce handed him the mortgage value for the property and added it to most of his quickly dwindling pile of money so he could pay Tony.

The billionaire could see the frustration on Steve's face as the rent costs left him with one mortgaged out property and what looked like about $46 in Monopoly money. He continued like that the entire game to the point that Clint was in hysterics.

"Stark is _so_  not getting laid tonight." He laughed, causing Tony to turn and glare.

"It's not my fault he's a sore loser!" Tony defended.

"I'm not a sore loser!" Steve fought back. "This game is all about luck it's not even fair. You just got lucky and landed on good properties and then had everyone else land on it!"

Tony rolled his eyes and Steve got up from the table. "I don't want to play anymore. This is stupid."

Steve was barely out of the room when Tony couldn't keep his lips pressed tightly together anymore and burst into laughter. As it turned out, on the off chance that Steve _didn't_ beat him at something, he was the sorest loser Tony had ever seen. Barton was right, he was definitely not getting laid tonight. But it was totally worth it to see him finally lose at something


	8. #167: Steve Rogers is a total mother hen

For some reason, once their team molded into communal life together, Steve decided that they were family. Maybe it was the fact that none of them really had a family of their own, but now they were an unconventional family, but a family nonetheless. And Steve made a point of taking care of everyone, but especially Tony. It took Tony forever to really notice how often Steve did things like that.

For probably the 4th time that week Tony found Steve wandering down into his workshop with a tray of food for him. "Alright, break time, Shellhead." He sang. "Put down the sautering iron and eat with me."

Tony pulled off his goggles and watched as Steve laid out a blanket on the floor and set the tray down in the middle of it. "You made us a picnic for the shop?"

Steve nodded. "Sandwiches, fruit, and water, including water for you to keep down here and drink so you don't get dehydrated. " He said matter-of-factly.

It was a few nights later when Steve let himself into the workshop and turned off Tony's screen before hoisting him up out of his chair. The billionaire mumbled as he was stirred awake from where'd he'd passed out against his desk. "Come on, handsome." He said carrying him out of the workshop and up to bed.

Tony yawned as he was tucked into bed over the sound of Steve lecturing him about getting more sleep and keeping a healthy schedule. "You're such a mother hen." He mumbled, earning him a kiss to the forehead and a stern. "Sleep, Tones." 


	9. #254: He's the most beautiful thing in the world

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1 more chapter to go!
> 
>  
> 
> Huge shout out to the winner of the contest Marie, who came up with the idea that inspired this chapter. (will link to a tumblr/ao3 etc if I get one!)

Tony would be hard pressed to find someone who _didn't_  find the good Captain attractive. The man was hot, there was no denying that. But honestly, Tony hadn't given it much thought passed that. Until one day, he did.

Steve Rogers was absolutely stunning. Tony watched from their bed as Steve stepped out of the shower and toweled off his hair. If there was a sight more beautiful than Steve, it was definitely Steve with beads of water rolling down his chest. His skin was smooth and carried just a hint of a tan to it and the water rolled off it like glass. His body was still as firm and tight as the day Tony met him, his muscles and skin remaining firm and if he'd aged a day in the time they'd spent together, his body certainly didn't show it.

Tony had known Steve was younger than him. He wasn't stupid. Though the man joked about being over one hundred, physically and counting years alive and kicking, Steve wasn't even thirty. Tony had a good eighteen years on the man. To make things worse, he was starting to get some serious wrinkles and even a few god forsaken gray hairs.

Any thoughts Tony had about Steve being too young and hot for him were swept from his mind went the man in question crossed the room and pressed a damp kiss to his lips and murmured. "You're staring." Before Tony could even think of trying to feel bad about himself or think too much into Steve being younger than him, Steve was climbing back onto the bed. And the rest was history.

When Steve stepped out of the shower for the second time that morning, Tony only thought about how goddamn beautiful he was. and as Tony followed Steve out of the shower by the hand that was exactly what he thought. He was dating the most perfect man in the world and he wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.


	10. #366: Make him feel Special

  
Its a simple as that, make him feel special because he is.

Tony fidgeted nervously as he waited for Steve. He was sitting in their restaurant at their table. It was the restaurant they went to on their first date. They had been to this restaurant several times in the year that they had been officially dating for and it had kind of become their go-to spot for date night. But tonight was more than just date night. Tonight was special. And the ring box weighing down his pocket certainly didn't help calm his nerves.

He had thought about how to do this for days on end. He had considered doing something big and showy, but that wasn't Steve's kind of deal. He had thought about having the ring brought out in a champagne glass or in some whipped cream on Steve's dessert, but Steve wasn't one to appreciate something impersonal like that.

Tony managed to buckle down his nerves for the duration of their meal and was able to contain any urges he had to blurt out a proposal mid-meal. That was _definitely_  not how he wanted to do it. Once they left the restaurant, Tony managed to convince Steve that they should take a walk before heading home. They held hands as they walked through Central Park and only let go once they'd reached Bow Bridge as Steve pulled his arms up onto the railing to look out at the view across the water to where the New York sky was lit up like a Christmas tree.

"I always forget how nice it is out here at night. So peaceful." Steve mused softly. "Probably one of the best views in the world."

And like a goddamn rom-com cliche, Tony just hummed an affirmative response, looking at Steve out of the corner of his eye.

"So, uh..." Tony began after a few seconds of comfortable silence. "There's something I kind of wanted to talk to you about." He said not taking his eyes off the water. "It's our anniversary or whatever, at least officially of our first date. So maybe I'm just getting sappy, but... what I'm trying to say is I just really care about you a lot." When Steve stayed quiet Tony just kept on going. "And I never really saw myself in any kind of long-term relationship before you. And I'm just really glad that I got to spend this last year with you ."

Steve smiled softly and because he just always seemed to know how to read between the lines Tony gave him and figure out what he was trying to say, just said: "I love you too, Tony."

"I thought for a long time about how I wanted to do this, but if we're being honest, I still don't have a frigging clue. So I'm just gonna need you to bear with me here." Tony said stepping back from the wall of the bridge.

Steve scrunched up his face. "What are you-?" He froze as Tony reached into his pocket.

"Okay Steve, breathe. Just let me get this out." He urged, pulling out the ring box. "I love you more than I ever thought was even possible. And I don't want to spend a single day of my life without you." Tony began, taking Steve's hand and dropping down onto one knee. "So, Steve, will you do me the honor and make me the luckiest person in the world and marry me?" He pressed the release on the small box and watched it pop open so the shiny gold band inside faced Steve.  
  
Steve nodded quickly, bending himself over to kiss Tony gently. "Of course I will marry you, Tony." He said tugging him up from the ground. "Now get up here and give my ring, you beautiful sap."


End file.
